Tuesday, March 31, 2015

The stories are limitless...

By R.J. Harlick

“There's only so many ways to sing the
blues and yet no one ever asks blues musicians why they're still doing it. Do
you ever feel restricted by the constraints of the crime genre or overwhelmed
by what's out there?"

They’re singing the
blues because they love singing the blues. If they didn’t, they’d sing
something else. Crime writers are no different. We write crime fiction because
we have great fun writing it. Far from feeling constrained by the genre, I’d say
we continuously push the envelope, so to speak.

Detective/suspense
fiction didn’t exist until Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced the reading public
to the crime solving detective and Wilkie Collins to the amateur sleuth. And
while crime continues to be central to the plot, successive crime writers have taken
the genre in many fascinating and varied directions, so many that the genre has
been further divided into sub-genres, even sub-sub-genres.

I don’t think any of
us have felt the least constrained by the genre. Quite the contrary. Stories
involving crime, even a simple mystery, are limitless. They revolve around
human nature. Nothing is more fascinating than the complexities of the human
mind and the motivations that drive us not only to commit a crime but also in
our continuous interactions with the world and people around us.

Take my Meg Harris
series for example. I set Meg up in a near impossible setting for a mystery
series: a wilderness, where people are few and far between. It’s worse than
Cabot Cove. The potential for the body count to surpass the living population
is high. So what do I do? I move Meg around. She goes off on canoe trips, visits
nearby cities, explores other wildernesses, where the body count can rise
without becoming ludicrous.

There is so much
freedom with the mystery genre. Think of all the fascinating places you can
visit from the comfort of your chair. As the author, you get to visit and
explore all these unique places, all in the interests of research of course.

With historical
mysteries, the genre transcends time, taking the reader as far back as the
author wants to take them. Those mysteries with a science fiction slant take
the reader to the future and to societies that exist by virtue of the author’s
imagination, which let’s face it is boundless.

As for the crimes
themselves. I suppose one could say there are only so many variations on a
theme. But let’s face it, there are many ingenious ways to end a person’s life,
many of which have already been written about. But I imagine there are other
ways still lurking in an author’s mind. The crime doesn’t have to be limited to
murder, but could be any kind of crime. Just is, murder is the most dramatic.

More intriguing with
the genre is the ability to exploring the motivations behind the crime. As I
said at the outset, it revolves around human nature. The permutations and
combinations are boundless, particularly when you add different locations,
different cultures and different periods in time into the mix.

But if a crime writer
begins to feel they are running out of crime stories, they can always write a
different type of fiction. However, I have yet to meet a crime writer who has moved away from
the genre. It’s too much fun. Instead, when they feel they are becoming stale
with a particular series, they write a new one with different characters and
locations, even time periods and cultures.

By the way I’ve just
sent my publisher the manuscript for the next Meg Harris mystery, A Cold White Fear, which will be
released in early November.For a
change of pace, I have written a different kind of crime novel, a thriller.
Rather than trying to determine whodunit, Meg has to survive a very perilous
situation. She is stranded at her home, Three Deer Point, by a raging blizzard,
when there is a sudden knock at her door….

Q&A with Criminal Minds!

Question of the Week

Each week the crime fiction authors of Criminal Minds respond to a question about writing, reading, murder and mayhem.Question of the Week: Make a bullet list of your ideal writing-related expenses. Must jibe with the themes of your books. And must be funny.

Join the Community

Mondays with Susan

Susan C. Shea debuts a new series, a French village mystery, Love & Death in Burgundy in spring 2017 (St. Martin's Minotaur). The third in her Dani O'Rourke series came out in Feb. 2016. She lives in Marin County, CA.

Mondays with Terry

Terry Shames writes the Macavity Award-winning Samuel Craddock series, set in small-town Texas. In 2015 BookPeople dubbed her one of the top five Texas mystery authors.

Tuesdays with RM

RM Greenaway has worked in nightclubs, darkrooms, and courthouses. She writes the B.C. BLUES crime series, featuring RCMP detectives Leith and Dion. Her first novel COLD GIRL, winner of the 2014 Arthur Ellis Unhanged award, will be released 26 March 2016.

Tuesdays with R.J.

R.J. Harlick is the author of the acclaimed Meg Harris mystery series set in the wilds of Quebec. Her love for Canada’s untamed wilds is the inspiration for her series. The 4th book, Arctic Blue Death, was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel.

Wednesdays with Cathy

Cathy Ace writes the globe-trotting Cait Morgan Mysteries, (Bony Blithe winner 2015 - Agatha’s Canadian cousin), and the WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries, set in her native Wales. She lives in rural British Columbia.

Wednesdays with Dietrich

Dietrich Kalteis is the award-winning author of Ride the Lightning, The Deadbeat Club, Triggerfish, House of Blazes and Zero Avenue. Nearly fifty of his short stories have been published, and he lives with his family on Canada’s west coast.

Thursdays with Catriona

Catriona McPherson is the Anthony, Agatha, Macavity, IndieFab and Lefty winning author of the DANDY GILVER series set in Scotland in the 1920s, as well as two darker stand-alones AS SHE LEFT IT and THE DAY SHE DIED. Catriona lives in northern California with a black cat and a scientist.

Thursdays with Jim

James W. Ziskin (Jim to his friends) is the author of the Edgar-, Anthony-, Barry-, Lefty-, and Macavity-nominated Ellie Stone Mysteries. He's 6'2", weighs 200 pounds, and writes like a girl.

Fridays with Paul

Paul D. Marks pulled a gun on the LAPD...and lived to tell about. A former "script doctor," Paul's novel WHITE HEAT is a 2013 SHAMUS AWARD WINNER. Publishers Weekly calls WHITE HEAT a "taut crime yarn." Paul is also the author of over thirty published short stories in a variety of genres, including several award winners. GHOSTS OF BUNKER HILL, from the 12/16 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, was voted #1 in the 2016 Ellery Queen Readers Poll.

Fridays with Danny

Danny Gardner's work has appeared in Beat to a Pulp, Out of the Gutter, and Literary Orphans Journal. His first novel, A NEGRO AND AN OFAY, will be released May 2017 by Down And Out Books. His short fiction will be featured in JUST TO WATCH HIM DIE, a Johnny Cash inspired anthology, published by Gutter Books in Winter 2016.